Former Green Party mayor ties campaign
to ‘encourage’ cities
to face climate change with local election battles of the future?

By Crescenzo Velluci

CONTRA
COSTA – A former Green Party mayor here is targeting every city in
this county to participate in a campaign to promote public awareness about
the
causes and impacts
of
climate change. And she says that future city elections will have a lot
to do with how cities react.

Lynda
Deschambault, past mayor of Moraga, launched the campaign,
which now has 15 of 19 cities in the County (Concord, Clayton, San Pablo
and Pleasant Hill are not
on board yet) participating.

"It is more important than ever that local advocates support, encourage
and hold our elected local decision makers accountable to making critical
policy decisions,” said Deschambault,
who is executive director of the project, part of the nonprofit Generation
Green. Since its inception
in 1990, Generation Green has informed citizens and encouraged environmental
action in Contra Costa County. Two other Generation Green projects include
the Dumpster Diversion Project
which is working to recycle materials through art and education and the
Green Rheem Movie night, an environmental documentary film series with
local food and wine on the 2nd Thursday of each month.

"Although some may be surprised to see so many cities in this sometimes
conservative county taking such a strong stand on this topic, it is important
to keep in mind that as
city budgets continue to tighten, energy efficiency
and cost cutting sustainability
measures are a mainstream way of doing
city business and saving money,” Deschambault
said.

The cities have agreed to participate in the Cities for Climate Protection
Campaign (www.iclei.org). As a participant, each city pledges to take
a leadership
role in promoting public awareness about the causes and
impacts of climate change. Each city will conduct
a greenhouse gas inventory, set goals, and write a climate action
plan to address opportunities for
reducing Greenhouse
gas emissions.

A baseline inventory provides a city with an overview of its emissions
and allows for tracking success, said Deschambault. Equipped with these
inventories in hand, each city will
individually discuss, review and address their quantified energy related
emissions
in their
city.

Deschambault explains that the inventory is all inclusive of activities
within a city’s boundaries and calculates
emissions from all facilities and all sources. Electricity, water, garbage,
miles traveled…all
of these have associated CO2 emissions, which will be included in the
city reports.

Why Contra Costa County, an expansive county geographically located near
San Francisco? According to Deschambault, statistics indicate that the Contra
Costa contribution is significant
to the health and well being of the Bay
Area as a whole.

"The CCC emission rate in tons/person is the highest of all the Bay
Area counties. Our population is significant in size (1 million as
compared
to Alameda’s 1.4 million). The growth rate of CCC (8
percent) is much higher than the other counties and higher than California
as
a whole (6 percent),” said the Green.
Deschambault said Generation Green provides local decision-makers with
a monthly newsletter, quarterly
workshops, and a website for cities
to share best practices. www.cccclimateleaders.org.

Green Focus and Green Focus Web Edition (c) 2003 by the Green Party of California. Email webmaster with comments.